Sellaio was a Florentine artist who, according to Vasari, was a pupil of Filippo Lippi. His actual name was Jacopo del Arcangelo, and Sellaio is derived from his father's occupation as a saddler. He seems to have run an active workshop and the quality of this work would suggest that it is a workshop product.

The label from the 'Christian Arts Festival', Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, 1955, attributes the painting to an unknown 16th century Umbrian artist. Research notes by Christopher Baker, 1989, held by Astley Cheetham Art Gallery: 'In compositional terms the association with Sellaio is entirely reasonable, but because of a lack of quality and the problematic condition of the panel a direct attribution cannot be sustained. This work lies close to a painting in the Christ Church Gallery, Oxford, The Virgin Adoring the Child , they both have horses and figures before a cityscape to the left, a similar juxtaposition of the Virgin and Child, and high rocks to the right. But the Christ Church panel is by far the more detailed and competent work and it has never been doubted as an autograph work of Sellaio's. As such by comparing the two works it is evident that the Staylebridge work is by a less accomplished assistant or follower of the artist. The possibility that he controlled an active workshop has been suggested by Zeri and Gardner because of the existence of such a large number of similarly composed works of vastly varying quality'.